Doing Translational Research

The foundation of his research interests stem from his background growing up in a large, working-class family in South Dakota, Dan Lichter explains. He and Chris discuss rural communities and how they develop and grow, poverty, issues of racial diversity and identity and the sentiment of disenfranchisement in rural communities. Lichter has always done work that is obviously important to the general population and acknowledges that rural America has been historically left out of consideration in academia. Daniel T. Lichter is the Ferris Family professor in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University and Professor of Sociology. Lichter has published widely on topics in population and public policy, including studies of concentrated poverty and inequality, intermarriage, cohabitation and marriage among disadvantaged women and immigrant incorporation.

Karen Levy has a background in sociology and law and studies the social, legal and ethical implications of technology. She and Chris get into her interest in the employment of surveillance in mundane contexts: the workplace, households and in intimate partner relationships. They discuss when individuals use surveillance on each other as well as when companies watch workers and consumers. They also explore the ways surveillance data can be used to counter injustice on behalf of workers or marginalized populations. Karen Levy is an assistant professor in the Department of Information Science at Cornell University, and associate member of the faculty of Cornell Law School. She researches how law and technology interact to regulate social life, with particular focus on social and organizational aspects of surveillance. Much of Dr. Levy's research analyzes the uses of monitoring for social control in various contexts, from long-haul trucking to intimate relationships. She is also interested in how data collection uniquely impacts, and is contested by, marginalized populations. Doing Translational Research is produced, recorded and edited by Carrie Chalmers, who actually enjoyed that Ulysses comment (Ithaca tie in!).

Our guest Bruce Lewenstein is a professor in the Departments of Communication and of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University. A historian and social scientist, his main focus is the public understanding of science. He and Chris discuss studying scientific controversies and the essential importance of listening to and understanding what a community values in order to work with that community. Bruce Lewenstein is an authority on public communication of science and technology, how science and technology are reported to the public and how the public understands controversial scientific issues and "emerging technologies" such as biotechnology and nanotechnology. Trained as a historian of science, he often uses historical case studies in his research. He has also done extensive work evaluating "citizen science" outreach projects, in which citizens fully participate in the scientific process by gathering, entering and sometimes analyzing scientific data. In recent years, he has helped connect the "public communication" field with the "learning sciences" field, especially around issues of public engagement in science. He works frequently with scientists learning more about public communication of science and technology.

Lars Andersen of the Rockwool Foundation in Copenhagen, Denmark joins us this month to discuss his research on crime and the consequences of punishment. He and Chris discuss the importance of using quality data to answer questions or reexamine existing knowledge based on poor data; how criminal justice professionals (wardens, guards, parole officers, etc.) engage with his research; and how to design sentencing policies that improve life chances instead of ruining them. Lars Højsgaard Andersen is a senior researcher at the Rockwool Foundation Research Unit in Copenhagen, Denmark. His research interests include how criminal justice contact concentrates within and across generations, how conditions of confinement affect people and the role of family processes for these topics.

This month guest host and BCTR associate director Maria Fitzpatrick chats with Will Hobbs about his research on sudden changes and how people adapt to them. The change in question could be personal, like the death of a friend, or societal, like a governmental policy shift. As a researcher, he's most often associated with methods such as data science using complex data sources and causal inference. William Hobbs is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Development at Cornell University. He is also in the Department of Government and on the graduate field faculty in Information Science. Hobbs studies politics and health, especially the social effects of government actions and how small groups of people adapt to sudden changes in their lives. His recent projects have studied the development of public attitudes toward the Affordable Care Act, how social networks heal after a death, and unintended consequences of online censorship in China.

This month we welcome Lonnie Berger, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and Ph.D. Program Chair at the School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His work aims to inform public policy in order to improve its capacity to assist families in accessing resources, improving family functioning and wellbeing and ensuring that children are able to grow and develop in the best possible environments. Lonnie and Chris discuss the intersection of public policy, family structures and family resources and how those affect child wellbeing. How Lonnie's grounding in social work, as opposed to a social science disipline, informs and broadens his research. Lonnie has extensive experience working with state agencies in Wisconsin around child wellbeing generally and also the foster system. He descibes specific examples of issues and successes in partnering with state agencies to further child wellbeing. Lonnie Berger is the director of the Institute for Research on Poverty and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and Ph.D. Program Chair at the School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is engaged in studies in three primary areas: (1) examining the determinants of substandard parenting, child maltreatment, and out-of-home placement for children; (2) exploring associations among socioeconomic factors, parenting behaviors, and children’s care, development, and wellbeing; and (3) assessing the influence of public policies on parental behaviors and child and family well-being.

This month Chris chats with political scientist Jamila Michener. Jamila gets into her interest in politics and inequality from an early age; how public policy plays a role in alienating people at the economic and racial margins; and how connections to stakeholders shape her work. Jamila Michener is an assistant professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University. Her research focuses on poverty, racial inequality and public policy in the United States. Her recent book, "Fragmented Democracy: Medicaid, Federalism and Unequal Politics," examines how Medicaid affects democratic citizenship. "Fragmented Democracy" assesses American political life from the vantage point(s) of those who are living in or near poverty, (disproportionately) Black or Latino, and reliant on a federated government for vital resources.

This time Chris is joined by his collaborator, political scientist Peter Enns. They get into Peter's work examining how how policy can be informed by public opinion in such areas as mass incarceration and unerstanding election resutls. He also explains why it's a good time for criminal justice reform. Peter K. Enns is an associate professor in the Department of Government and executive director of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University. His research focuses on public opinion, representation, mass incarceration and inequality. His recent book "Incarceration Nation" explains why the public became more punitive in the 1960s, 70s, 80, and 90s, and how this increasing punitiveness led to the rise of mass incarceration in the United States.

Shannon Gleeson studies workplace rights, the experiences of immigrant workers and the role of advocacy organizations in holding government bureaucracies accountable. She and Chris discuss the overlap between immigration and labor policy, immigrant labor rights, the often-overlooked importance of policy implementation and working with various stakeholders. Shannon describes her experiences working with communities, including the importance of finding the gatekeepers and not over-promising as researchers, Shannon Gleeson is an associate professor of labor relations, law, and history in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. Gleeson’s first book, "Conflicting Commitments: The Politics of Enforcing Immigrant Worker Rights in San Jose and Houston," was published in 2012 by Cornell University Press. Her second book, "Precarious Claims: The Promise and Failure of Workplace Protections in the United States," (forthcoming, University of California Press) examines U.S. labor and employment laws, the challenges low-wage workers face when they come forward to file a claim and their experiences in fighting for justice.

Melissa Ferguson, a senior associate dean and professor of psychology at Cornell University, dives into the intriguing realm of implicit cognition and prejudice. She discusses the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and how it can predict behaviors better than self-reports. Highlighting her research with high school students, she emphasizes the importance of understanding unconscious attitudes in improving academic outcomes for underserved communities. Ferguson also shares insights on the challenges of replicating psychological research and the necessity of collaboration in community-based studies.